Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Open to change; adaptable: an emotionally labile person.
- adj. Chemistry Constantly undergoing or likely to undergo change; unstable: a labile compound.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Unstable; liable to err, fall, or apostatize.
- In medicine, noting a mode of application of electricity in which the active electrode is passed back and forth over the nerve or muscle to be acted upon: opposed in this sense to slabile.
Wiktionary
- adj. Liable to slip, err, fall, or apostatize.
- adj. Apt or likely to change.
- adj. chemistry, of a compound or bond Kinetically unstable; rapidly cleaved (and possibly reformed).
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Liable to slip, err, fall, or apostatize.
- adj. Liable or likely to change.
- adj. (Chem.) Easily decomposed or inactivated when subjected to heat, radiation, or mildly acidic or alkaline conditions; -- of chemical compounds.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (chemistry, physics, biology) readily undergoing change or breakdown
- adj. liable to change
Etymologies
- Latin labilis ("apt to slip, transient"), from labi ("to fall, slip"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English labil, forgetful, wandering, from Old French labile, from Late Latin lābilis, apt to slip, from lābī, to slip. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I would, however, dispute the claim that he’s paranoid … and claiming that he’s emotionally labile is quite frankly laughable.”
“One is that the internal muscle has become very labile, meaning any little input inside the anus causes it to relax.”
“Lying on the table, stuck full of needles in a room painted soft peach, with monks softly chanting in the background, my mind wandered to the acupuncturist's use of the word "labile" in our pre-treatment conversation and the realization that labile and labial were not the same word.”
“Lou said … hey no problems, i'd be pleased to help if i can: o) i spent several years trying to convince my previous diabetic team to let me have one and then gave up, because basically they said I was non compliant (which I wasn't I just had "labile" diabetes I think that used to be called 'brittle') so it was too expensive to basically 'waste' on me.”
“Louisa said … hey no problems, i'd be pleased to help if i can: o) i spent several years trying to convince my previous diabetic team to let me have one and then gave up, because basically they said I was non compliant (which I wasn't I just had "labile" diabetes I think that used to be called 'brittle') so it was too expensive to basically 'waste' on me.”
Discussion Forum - TuDiabetes - A Community for People Touched by Diabetes
“Or, conversely, how in the world do we believe Boehner, known for expressing a notably labile --unstable display of emotion -- style and behavior?”
The Huffington Post: Dr. Cheryl Pappas: Educating the Peeps: Political Information, Please!
“Is truth just a subjective, labile thing that no one can but interpret and never state objectively?”
The Huffington Post: Laila E Hamarinen: Thoughts On Freedom Of Speech in Europe
“In the end, I do know for sure that this person is hurt and troubled, as I was in the not-too-distant past, and also psychologically labile — so, who knows, perhaps there is an opening for mending the friendship.”
“It's all in the timing and fleeting flickers across his vividly labile face.”
“And yet, as this column in Mother Jones suggests, the administration through its terrorism czar John Brennan will likely justify this as the elimination of such a threat on the grounds that fighting terrorism requires us to take a labile view of imminence.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘labile’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Dominant/Submissive
abusive, adamant, autocratic, bossy, bullheaded, bumptious, certain, cock-a-hoop, cocksure, cocky, commanding, compelling and 189 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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phrontistery - l
from phrontistery.info
lacis, laches, labret, labile, lability, labarum, labefactation, labeorphily, lux, luff, lour, limn and 496 more...
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truman486's list
Masterbatory Aids
ensorcelled, scintilla, maudlin, lugubrious, frisson, praxis, copasetic, crotch, corollary, bandy, undulating, anthropomorphic and 65 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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words
diplopic, dolorous, farrago, surety, scuttlebutt, Arabesque, infarct, neurasthenia, lambent, expurge, univocal, simper and 395 more...
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Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
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the catch-all
inveigle, frontier, invective, quizzical, merit, proficiency, eleemosynary, ham-handed, circumspect, epergne, cobble, industriousness and 201 more...
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envelopingshadow's Words
denouement, kitsch, acrimonious, macabre, anachronism, atavism, ennui, parse, lugubrious, holism, brusque, commiserate and 164 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for labile.
sparklefarkle Ziggy Stardust was labile. "Cha-cha-cha-changes..." Oct 3, 2008
sratsrat first encountered in Goya, a biography by Robert Hughes, (2008) Feb 16, 2008